29 December 2020

Darrell Clarke frustrated as Walsall pay the penalty

29 December 2020

Frustrated Walsall boss Darrell Clarke said his Saddlers must make end their penalty woes after a 2-1 defeat at home to Scunthorpe.

After Wes McDonald’s volley cancelled out Miles Hippolyte’s close-range opener for the Iron, Walsall had the chance to go ahead from the spot when Jordan Clarke brought down Elijah Adebayo.

However, Josh Gordon’s penalty was saved by Scunthorpe stopper Mark Howard and Alex Gilliead punished the miss by drilling home United’s winner from 20 yards.

It was Walsall’s fourth spot-kick miss out of seven attempts in League Two this season and they have also lost two cup shoot-outs out of three.

Clarke said: “We lost the game because we didn’t score the penalty in the second half, that’s the ruthless world we’re in.

“The players practice them every day, they’re forever on it, it’s not something that we don’t do, and Josh had scored his last couple.

“But the lads have got to keep working on it. It’s cost us a few points.

“We get ourselves into a challenging position in the league and it’s so frustrating. We can beat any team on our day but we can lose to any team.

“It’s a sombre changing room as we think we chucked the points down the pan again.

“But for the dominance we had in the game, opportunities, territory, the penalty, there was only one team going to win it if the penalty goes in.

“I think nine times out of 10 you play that game, you win it but we didn’t win it today.”

While Walsall missed out on a chance to climb into the play-off spots, Scunthorpe moved six points clear of the bottom two with victory.

Hippolyte’s opener was his first Football League goal since a summer move from Yeovil and boss Neil Cox said: “Myles has been knocking on my door telling me he wants to play up front.

“I decided to give him the opportunity and he’s scored and he’s looking at me in the dressing room saying ‘keep playing me there’.

“He should have come off at half-time, his foot was swollen and he couldn’t get his boot off but he wanted to stay on and run through the pain.

“He’s moved a long way from his family and I think he’s just starting to settle in now.

“First half we were excellent and scored a good goal – second half we sat in there, we defended and I was proud of the boys after we conceded as I thought we might sink a little bit.

“We’ve got a lot of young players – I think I’ve got the youngest squad out of the whole 92 so we are going to be eight out of 10 one week and five out of 10 another.”

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